CJEU, here.
Judging from the press
release, this is a victory on every front. And, this time, quite
literally without appeal. Whether EU competition law can still be
rescued and made more effective is another matter, but it should at
least put some courage back into our enforcers and policy makers!
Favourite
sentence so far "This applies all the more where the conduct at issue
does not lend itself to a quantitative, price-based analysis".
Least favourite: BEUC - The European Consumer Organisation should
bear its own legal costs. If the EU is serious about civil society as
part of its enforcement infrastructure the economics of standing before
its courts deserve the same scrutiny as the substance argued there. The
courts anchors liability in consumer harm (e.g., para. 414 on diversity
of information sources) but their representatives see nothing of the
€4.125 billion fine and have to bear their legal expenses?
Interestingly,
the Stockholm/PriceRunner ruling invites Android claimants (rival
search services, browser vendors, OEMs even?) to plead continuation past
2018. This could at least provide solid economic incentives to comply
with the related DMA obligations - quickly.
Google has announced that it is launching AI Overviews and AI Mode (together with other Gemini-based services) in France. While traditional ...